New Class: The Traveler

An astounding array of creatures passes through the Land of Nod, from elves to native-born humans to  ambulatory fungi and floating brains. But among the more interesting are the so-called Travelers. Travelers are human beings, often from our own waking world, who navigate the Land of Nod with the power of their dreaming mind. Although seemingly awake and aware, all travelers actually exist in a state of semi-consciousness, living out their fancies thanks to the shaky fabric of reality that makes up the nonsensical tapestry called Nod. Travelers are adventurers first and foremost, with a thirst for new and strange vistas. Travelers are imaginative and creative and often impulsive, for they are used to reality shifting to please them and sometimes taken back when events do not comply with their wishes.

PRIME REQUISITES: Charisma and Wisdom

HIT DICE: 1d6+1 (+2 hit points per level after 9th)

WEAPONS PERMITTED: Any.

ARMOR PERMITTED: Leather, ring, chainmail, shields.

FOCUS: To use his special abilities, a traveler must possess a focus object and must be holding it in his hand. To use his abilities, the traveler must activate them with a successful saving throw. He must then remain in a somewhat calm reverie; emotional and physical disruptions can stop the traveler in his tracks and necessitate further saving throws to maintain the reverie.

From 1^st to 4^th level, a traveler can impose his will upon his immediate surroundings. To use these abilities, he must be grasping a walking stick with a silver tip. Such a stick can be obtained for 30 gp, and can be used as a club in combat.

From 5^th to 8^th level, a traveler can use his powers to explore on a global scale. To use abilities gained from 4^th to 6^th level, the traveler must possess a golden compass. Such a compass can be constructed by an expert jeweler at a cost of 500 gp.

From 9^th on, the traveler learns to pierce the veil of time itself. In order to use his new abilities, he must possess a pocket watch made of gold and studded with diamonds. Such a device can be constructed by an expert jeweler at a cost of 3,000 gp.

Creatures wishing to accompany the traveler on his extra-dimensional trips must take care. The traveler can travel with one person per two levels. These hangers-on must keep their eyes closed tight while traveling or go mad. Even with their eyes closed, they are ripped from their own sense of dimension and time, and thus must pass a saving throw or become nauseous for 1d4 rounds after they finish their trip.

SLEEP RESISTANCE: Although not immune to sleep, travelers enjoy a +2 bonus to save against sleep spells and effects. Strangely, when knocked into unconsciousness by a sleep spell a traveler still perceives the world around him, and can act on it by animating inanimate objects. The traveler can animate one small object at 1st level, one man-sized object at 4th level and one large object at 7th level. The object acts with the traveler’s will. If destroyed in combat, the traveler loses 1d6 hit points for a small object, 2d6 for a man-sized object and 3d6 for a large object.

ECCENTRICITIES: The traveler’s ability to perceive the spaces between dimensions gives them a slightly alien mindset that reveals itself in their eccentricities. At each level beyond 1st, a traveler must roll on the following table. The term “unnerved” indicates that the traveler suffers a -1 penalty to all d20 rolls while in the presence of the thing that unnerves him. Rolling an eccentricity a second time makes it more intense (i.e. being unnerved imposes a -2 penalty, etc).

D20	Eccentricity
1	Unnerved by a certain color
2	Unnerved by small animals or children
3	Must stand next to the tallest or shortest or fattest or thinnest person in a room
4	Frightened by gourds and melons
5	Can only eat or never eat with his fingers
6	Accidentally reverses the meanings of words
7	Becomes unnerved, morose, angry or giddy when traveling in one of the cardinal directions
8	Suffers from agoraphobia
9	Stares at people and takes long pauses before he speaks
10	Will not drink water, only wine
11	Unnerved by sea creatures and seafood
12	Laughs at innapropriate moments
13	Unnerved (or even frightened) by an innocuous word or phrase
14	Never calls people by their names, only nicknames that change from day to day
15	Only walks backwards across bridges or under arches
16	Feels the need to touch people while talking to them
17	Unnatural fear of cabbages and other leafy vegetables – this becomes panic at the sight of leafy plant monsters
18	Will not willingly get on a boat – mumbles something about the stars when asked to
19	Talks to himself, often in the middle of the night, increasing the chance of wandering monsters by 1
20	Super fastidious and clean

NON-EUCLIDIAN PRINCIPALS: A 1st level traveler perceives that the shortest route between two points is a non-Euclidian curve and increases his speed by 3 (or by 30 ft in some system or 5 ft in others). To use these abilities, he must be grasping a walking stick with a silver tip. Such a stick can be obtained for 30 gp, and can be used as a club in combat.

MAKE HASTE: For exactly one minute per day, the 2nd level traveler can operate under the effects of a haste spell. The traveler must take care not to exceed one minute of hasted movement, for beyond this he begins aging 1 year for every minute of hasted activity.

BETWEEN DIMENSIONS: The 3rd level traveler’s inherent perception of the space between dimensions allows him to slide between them, duplicating the effects of the dimension door spell. He can do this once per day without incident, but additional uses carry with them an increasing chance of attracting the attention of an inter-dimensional being such as a demon or ethereal marauder. The second time in a day that a traveler uses dimension door carries a 1 in 6 chance of a weird encounter. Each additional use increases the chances by 1.

NORTH STAR: At 4th level, a traveler always knows which direction is north and can duplicate the effects of a Find the Path spell by making a successful saving throw. A failed saving throw gives the traveler false information, usually sending him in the opposite direction that he desired.

THROUGH THE SHADOWS: The 6th level traveler learns the true nature of shadows, and gains the ability to step into them and emerge many miles away as though using the spell teleport. The journey through the shadows seems to take a normal amount of time to the traveler (i.e. covering 6 miles on foot in 8 hours of travel), but in fact takes only 1 minute per mile traveled. The traveler suffers the same possibility of error while navigating the shadow realm, but does not run the risk of teleporting low or high, though their soul can be lost in the spaces between realities.

AMONG THE STARS: At 8th level, the traveler can fall into a deep sleep and travel in astral form, per the Astral Spell. If awakened while so travelling, the shock of returning to his senses robs the traveler of half his hit points (the heal naturally) and his bloodcurtling scream may attract wandering monsters.

PLANE SHIFT: The 10th level traveler can use his ability to slide between dimensions to visit other planes and realities. Traveling to another reality does not necessarily mean the traveler has the ability to survive in that reality, so care must be taken not to visit a place hostile to life.

FOURTH DIMENSIONAL THINKING: The 12th level traveler reaches the pinnacle of his art and learns to move frictionles between the falling sands of time, effectively stopping time around himself per the spell Time Stop.

Level	XP	HD	Attack	Save	Title
1	0	1	+0	15	Rover
2	1,500	2	+0	14	Wanderer
3	3,000	3	+1	13	Vagabond
4	6,000	4	+1	12	Navigator
5	12,000	5	+2	11	Explorer
6	30,000	6	+2	10	Discoverer
7	60,000	7	+3	9	Psychopomp
8	120,000	8	+3	8	Imaginant
9	175,000	9	+4	7	Traveler
10	230,000	+2	+5	6	Traveler
11	300,000	+4	+5	5	Traveler
12	370,000	+6	+6	5	Time Lord

+300,000 XP per level thereafter

Top illustration by Helsa Amadi
Bottom illustration by Winsor McCay